This invention relates to a cleaning device for an electrostatic copying machine and particularly to a sealing roller for preventing toner particles from escaping from the residual toner cleaning device housing.
In general, in electrostatic copying machines, a photoconductive member is charged. The photoconductive member then is exposed to a light image corresponding to the original subject matter to form a latent electrostatic image on the surface of the photoconductive member. In accordance with the electric potential of the latent electrostatic image, a developing apparatus causes an electrically charged toner to adhere to the latent electrostatic image on the photoconductive member to form a developed image. The developed image is then transferred to and fixed on paper. Residual toner particles on the photconductive member then are removed by a cleaning device. In this manner, copies are made by a typical electrostatic copying machine.
The cleaning device comprises a housing, a removing device within the housing which removes the residual toner particles from the photconductive member and a collecting device which collects the residual toner particles. The removing device uses a cleaning roller such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,784,297 (Ito et al) or blades such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,030,824. Blades are extensively used in electrostatic copying machines because of their simple construction and the small space required for setting them up in copying machines. In cleaning devices of the prior art, residual toner particles can escape from the cleaning device housing and soil the inside of the copying machine.
As to the collecting device, plastic collecting boxes, formed of a relatively hard material have been used in the past. These plastic collecting boxes take up a great amount of space when packed for commercial distribution or shipment. Also, the residual toner particles must be transferred from the plastic collecting box to a vinyl sack or the like for burning because, if these particles are burned together with the plastic collecting box, harmful gases would be generated by the burning plastic and damage would occur to the incinerating furnace. However, the step of transferring the residual toner particles from the collecting box to a vinyl sack wastes time, dirties the hands of the operator and dirties the collecting device itself. Finally, since plastic collecting boxes are not deformable, they take considerable packaging space and are inconvenient to carry.